Hand-stamp.



C. S. ELLIS.

HAND STAMP. APPLICATION FILED NOV. 20, 1915.

Patented Mar. 13, 1917.

IT ATE i CHARLES S. ELLIS, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

HAND-STAMP.

useful Improvements in Hand-Stamps; and.

I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof,

- reference bein had to the accom an in 8 b drawings, and to the characters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

This invention relates to improvements in self inking hand stamps and refers more particularly to a novel mechanism for inking the type of the stamp, and the invention consists in the arrangement of the parts shown in the drawings and described in the specification, and is more fully pointed out in the appended claims.

The invention is herein shown as applied to a common form of tumbler type of hand stamp wherein the type is carried by a tumbler frame or carrier which is normally upheld against an inking pad, the tumbler and the type carried thereby reversing upon the printing stroke of the stamp so as to bring the type in the plane of and in contact with the sheet or other object to receive the printed impression.

Heretofore it has been a common practice in stamps of this general type to apply ink, as by means of a brush, to an inking pad carried by the stamp frame, upwardly against which the type are spring held in the nonprintin g position of the stamp. This method of inking the type is objectionable because of the fact that it is practically impossible to apply the ink uniformly to the pad, with the result that the ink is unevenly distributed upon the type and an irregular printed impression is produced.

In accordance with my invention I propose to apply an inking ribbon mechanism to the stamp in such manner that the ribbon is caused to intermittently travel across the pad or support against which the type are upheld in the nonprinting position of the stamp so that during the repeated impressions of the stamp fresh surfaces of the ribbon are presented to the faces of the type to uniformly distribute ink thereover. Preferably the inking ribbon is automatically shifted across the face of the pad or support by mechanism which is operated during the printing stroke of the stamp, so that Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 13, 1917.

Application filed November 20, 1915. Serial No. 62,476.

after the ribbon has been applied to the stamp no attention is required to shift the ribbon to present new surfaces thereof to the type.

In the embodiment of the invention herein shown the stamp frame is equipped at each side of the type carrier or tumbler with a roller, and the ribbon is unwound from one roller upon the other roller and across the face of the type support, and when the ribbon has been unwound from one roller entirely upon the other roller, a ribbon shifting mechanism is set or adjusted to reverse the direction of rotation of the rollers so that the ribbon is thereafter rolled upon the roller from which it has been theretofore unwound. Said reversing mechanism may be either manually or automatically actuated.

In the drawings Figure l is an end elevation of a hand stamp equipped with my invention.

Fig. 2 is a similar view thereof with the parts in their printing positions.

Fig. 3 is a horizontal section on the line 33 of Fig. 1.

Fig. i is a vertical section on the line H of Fig. 1.

Fig. 5 is a sectional detail on the line 5-5 of Fig. 3.

As shown in the drawings, 10 designates, as a whole, a familiar form of stamp frame comprising upright end members 11 and a top cross member 12. 1 1 designates a famil iar form of tumbler type carrier between the end members of the frame which is supported through the medium of a tie rod 15 which extends through slots in said end members and is attached at its ends, outside of the frame to the lower ends of the mem bers of an inverted U-shaped frame 16 to which is attached the usual hand piece 17. Said hand piece is hollow to receive the usual standard 18 which is fixed to and rises from the stamp frame and which contains the usual spiral spring 19 by which the hand piece is held in its upper position and the type carrier is normally upheld with the type 20 carried thereby normally pressed against a yielding pad or support 21 which is fixed in any suitable manner to the lower side of the upper cross piece 12 of the stamp frame.

The parts of the stamp described may be of any well known construction of the ordinary type of tumbler hand stamp, and constitute in themselves no part of the present invention. However, my improvements may be applied to hand stamps which differ structurally from the hand stamp herein shown.

Arranged at each side of the stamp frame and above the plane of the upper cross piece, as herein shown, are two ribbon reels 24 (Fig. 5) the shafts 34 of which are rotatively mounted at their ends in the end members 25 of the ribbon incasing shells 96, preferably made of sheet metal and attached to the upper cross piece of the stamp frame, as by screws 27. Attached at its ends to and wound about said reels is a pie-impregnated inking ribbon 28 which is trained between the reels across and beneath the pad or support 21 and which normally lies between the pad and the up-facing type 20 of the carrier 14L so that said type are normally presented toward and against the inking surface of the ribbon.

Each of said shafts 3% is provided at one end of the stamp frame with a ratchet wheel 30 and said ratchet wheels are adapted to be engaged by pawls 31, 31 that are carried by a horizontally movable shifter bar 32 which is mounted on one end of the frame outside of the adjacent vertical arm of the hand piece frame 16. The said shifter bar is slotted at its ends at 33 to fit over the adjacent ends of the Shafts of the reels 24. The shifter bar is provided in line with the adj acent hand piece frame 16 with a slot 35 outwardly through which extends a screwthreaded contact member 36. Said contact member is screw-threaded to receive a nut 37 by which it may be locked at either end of the slot. As herein shown the contact member is provided inside of the shifter bar 32 with a down turned portion having at its lower end an out turned terminal 38 which extends outwardly through an opening in a downwardly extending lug 39 of the shifter bar, whereby the contact member is fixed in place. When the contact member is thus held in place it is shifted from one end to the other of the slot 35 by loosening the nut 37 and swinging the contact member on the axis of the outturned terminal 38.

The hand piece frame 16 is provided with a pointed cam projection 40 which is lowered in the printing stroke of the stamp and strikes the contact member 36 to shift the shifter bar 32 endwise so as to force one of the, pawls 31 toward its associated ratchet wheel 30 and thereby partially rotate the associated reel and shift the inking ribbon across the pad support to present a new surface of the ribbon to the type. In order to return the shifter bar to its normal mid-position and thereby bring the active pawl into position to engage the ratchet wheel in the next operation of the shifting mechanism, the said hand piece frame 16 is provided at its lower end with a centering'lug 42 which is adapted to engage a V-shaped notch 43 formed in the lower end of the projection or lug 39 carried by the shifter bar.

The said pawls 31 may be hinged to upstanding ears 15 of the shifter bar, as by means of pivot pins 46, and may be guided in their movements by means of the guide pins 48 which engage inwardly opening notches in the pawls. The pawls may be sufliciently heavy to be operated by gravity to hold them engaged with the ratchets 30 or, equivalently, springs may be applied thereto for this purpose.

l/Vhen the ribbon has been shifted its full length across the type supporting pad 21 the contact member 36 is shifted from end of the slot 35 theretofore occupied thereby to the other end thereof and locked in place by the nut 37 whereby the cam projection 40 serves to bring into active service the other theretofore inactive pawl 31 to intermittently wind the ribbon on the reel from which it has just been unwound.

It will be noted that the type are automatically inked and that the ribbon shifting mechanism is actuated by the usual printing operation of the hand stamp and that the inking ribbon may be reversed and used from end to end a number of times. The construction described, therefore, enables the type to be uniformly inked so that regular and even impressions may be made therefrom, thereby avoiding the annoyance of frequently applying ink to the pad as has heretofore been common.

While my invention is herein shown as applied to a hand stamp of well known commercial form, it will be understood that the invention is capable of application to stamps which differ iIll structural details from the illustrated type, and further that it is the intent to claim all of inherent novelty shown in the drawings and described in the specification.

If desired the reel shafts, which are headed at their ends, may be placed under the influence of springs 50 (Fig. 3) which serve to yieldingly hold the shifter bar pressed toward the frame and the hand piece so as to thereby prevent binding of the parts in the printing of the stamp.

I claim as my invention 1. In a self-inking hand stamp, a frame; a type carrier; a support on the frame; an inking ribbon shiftable across the support against which the type are upheld; reel cases attached to the support at opposite sides of the stamp, and reels journaled in the ends of said cases to which the ends of the ribbon are attached and on which the ribbon is wound.

2. In a self-inking hand stamp, a frame; a depressible type carrier; a hand-piece to depress said carrier; a support on the frame;

an inking ribbon 'shiftable across the sup port against which the type are upheld; reels to which the ends of the ribbon are attached and on which the ribbon is wound, and means to rotate said reels to shift the ribbon across said support, including an actuating device on the hand-piece.

8. In a self-inking hand stamp, a frame; a depressible type carrier; a support on the frame; an inking ribbon shiftable across the support against which the type are upheld; reels to which the ends of the ribbon are attached and on which the ribbon is wound, and intermittently rotating means for said reels, embracing means depressible with the type carrier.

i. In a self-inking hand stamp, a frame; a type carrier; a support on the frame; an inking ribbon shiftable across the support against which the type are upheld; reels to which the ends of the ribbon are attached and on which the ribbon is wound; means operable during the printing stroke of the stamp to intermittently rotate said reels, and reel-reversing means.

5. A hand stamp comprising a frame hay ing a support; an inking ribbon shiftable across said support; a type carrier depressible in said frame, with means to normally uphold the type thereof against said ribbon; ribbon shifting means; a hand piece to depress the type carrier, and means directly connected to and operated by the hand piece to actuate the ribbon shifting means.

6. A self inking hand stamp comprising a frame, a spring held type carrier, with means to depress it, a support against which the type on the carrier are normally upheld, reels at the sides of said support about which an inking ribbon, trained across said support is wound, and means operable during the printing stroke of the stamp to intermittently rotate said reels.

7. A self inking hand stamp comprising a frame, a spring held type carrier, with means to depress it, a support against which the type on the carrier are normally upheld,-

reels at the sides of the said support about which the inking ribbon, trained across said support, is wound, ratchets on said reels, a shifter bar carried by the frame, pawls carried by the shifter bar to engage the ratchets and operative connections between the handle and the shifter bar to shift the latter during the printing stroke of the stamp.

8. A self inking hand stamp comprising a frame, a spring held type carrier, with means to depress it, a support against which the type on the carrier are normally upheld, reels at the sides of the said support about which an inking ribbon, trained across said support, is wound, ratchets on said reels, a shifter bar carried by the frame, pawls carried by the shifter bar to engage the ratchets, operative connections between the handle and the shifter bar to shift the latter during the printing stroke of the stamp and means operable during the return stroke of the stamp to return the shifter bar to its mid-position,

9. A self inking hand stamp comprising a frame, a spring held type carrier, with means to depress it, a support against which the type are normally held, reels at the sides of said support about which an inking ribbon, trained across said support, is wound, ratchets on said reels, an endwise reciprocable shifter bar carried by the frame, pawls carried by the shifter bar to alternately engage said ratchets to rotate one of the reels, a contact piece on the shifter bar, a cam on the hand piece to engage said contact piece in the printing stroke of the stamp and means on the hand piece to return the shifter bar to its mid-position in the return stroke of the stamp.

10. A selfinking hand stamp comprising a frame, a spring held type carrier, a hand piece to depress it, a support against which the type on the carrier are normally upheld, casings at the sides of said support, reels journaled in the ends of said casings about which an inking ribbon, trained across said support, is wound, and means whereby the ribbon may be shifted to present new surfaces thereof to the type.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention I aflix my signature in the presence of two witnesses, this 12th day of October, A. D. 1915.

CHARLES S. ELLIS, lVitnesses:

W. L. HALL, R. VILLNER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

' Washington, D. G. 

